I went out at the Ocean Front in Virginia Beach and as I was sailing I noticed a huge group of about 50 Dolphin booking through about a 100 yards futher out. They were moving fast and the wind was light so I just kept my course.

I was very supprised when the next time they came up they were all around me and continued slowly with me in the middle until after about 10 min. a power boat with a family noticed and came over. The Dolphins all broke off into small groups and scattered.

I continued on my course and about 15 min later they were all back with me in the middle and continued that way until another boat noticed and came roaring over.

I don't know if they just didn't feel threatened or if they were curious some came real close and really eyed me as they went by. The brown stains in the water are from red tide down in Carolina drifting up.

Many years ago I was windsurfing at the Ocean Front and had put my sail down to rest and have a cig, when 2 Dolphins popped up 4' away and just sat there looking at me.

I said Well Hello, and then a little one popped up in between and closer, I said aren't you a cute little guy. The first 2 went under and the little one stayed while I smoked my cig and talked to him. I always wished I could have gotten a pic of that encounter.
gwiz

We don't get that kind of wildlike interaction here on the Sacramento river.

Two weekends back we took the AI's with us to Santa Cruz to install our daughter in her first year of college. We went a day early to sail in the ocean, something my wife has never done.

After my daughter and her boyfriend tired my wife and I went out. We headed over towards the warf, near the beach boardwalk. A big ol' sea lion swam by to check us out. That was cool, but not as close as your dolphines got to you.

Excellent video. I had very similar experience on the my first AI cruise. I was in Surfside (Freeport) Texas this last June, and had twenty to thirty huge dolphin in groups of two and three as close as my amas. My heart was almost pounding out of my chest as they played and followed me around for an hour. It ranks up there with the most positive experiences of my life. Thanks for the video reminder. Tim

I know what you mean about experiences on the AI. I was out this morning on Albemarle Sound, trying to get in a couple hours of sailing in using the winds from Tropical Storm Gabrielle. Had just sailed out of the harbor on Colington Island when I saw some splashing just South of me. As I continued out I realized it was a group of about a dozen dolphins. I furled my sail and pedaled along for a few minutes, watching from a distance. Next thing I knew they had moved to where I was. As I pedaled along, several of them surfaced within a dozen yards of me. What really surprised me though, was when one actually surfaced INSIDE the space between the hull and my starboard ama. He swam there for about five to ten seconds or so, looking at me. It was incredible! If I'd dropped my sheet and straightened my arm, I could have touched him. Of course, they are protected, so I wouldn't have done that, even if it had occurred to me quickly enough.

The rest of the ride was no less eventful. The sailing was awesome. Winds were reported to be 17 - 20 knots, with gusts of 25. While cruising along on a hard port tack, I almost had her come over on me. My starboard ama disappeared down into the water and water flooded into the cockpit over the submerged starboard gunwale. My buddy (glenn_SouthRiver) was about a fifty yards astern of me and said my mast was well within 30 degrees of horizontal. He thought I'd broken my mast until it all came back upright. Talk about a ride! Like many such events, it seemed to be happening in slow motion as it occurred. I watched the ama submerge, felt it start to go over, and all I could think was "These aren't supposed to do this." I even had time to ponder how I was going to get the mast out of the bottom if it went all the way over, as the water is only about 10 ft deep there. When I came back upright, I found myself mostly turned into the wind, having slowed significantly. Once I'd caught my breath and sailed back to Glenn, I reefed the main for the rest of the trip back into the harbour (we were on our way back in anyway). I've had the AI out in 25 - 30 knot winds a number of times, and these felt to be at least that. Hoping to get out again tomorrow and enjoy some of the tail end of Gabrielle. Reached a new high speed of 8.7 knots (GPS) today too. Don't know how fast I was going when it went over, as I was a little busy to glance at the GPS.

Gabrielle had the Ocean rolling at the Ocean Front here. The surfers were getting jet ski tows into the the 10' to 12' swells. I spent about 3 hours riding along them and going up, up, and over. Nearly got my Island completely airbourne several times.

I wanted to stay out longer but lost rudder control completely in one direction and could only barely manage going straight so I had to circle round the direction that still worked until I lined up with my inlet and road a 12 footer in.

It turned out just to be one of the lines had pulled loose but I couldn't have fixed even that out there the way the I was getting tossed around. I was using both hands and 1 foot to hold the rudder steady when It popped so it had some real tension on it.

I drilled a hole through my rudder near the middle at the pivot point and ran a bunj cord through it and clip it to the rudder hold down bunj which I run under the yak. It adds tension and keeps the rudder from popping out. I now have my rudder double bunjed and a screw into the bottom of the pin, I trashed 2 of them last time out.

It always seems to be something with that dammed rudder. I have decided that a bigger fin is going to be needed as well because even when I had control it weren't enought to keep it from turning into the wind.

As for flipping the Island I am not sure it is possible, I have laid mine over to where the sail was skimming the water and still managed to set her right back up, but getting tossed out of the yak is something I am sure is do-able.

I tried filming riding the swells with my new adventure cam but it seems to have a built in zoom , but no view finder, all I got was 48 min of roiling Ocean and an occasional shot of the sail or nose of the yak.

My spray shield was really preforming great right up until it got shredded, oh well back to the drawing board and fabric shop for more plastic. I hit 11.6 mph and had several runs where steady speed was in high 9's to mid 10's winds here were only in the 10 gusting to 15 range.

The wife and I went out on the river (Sacramento) yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours. It was blowing as hard or harder than any day since we've owned the boats. Top speed on the GPS was 12.8 mph. It would have been much faster but the chop was horrendous. Our G-Wiz spray shields held up great but in action it makes the boat look like a front loader pushing 500 lbs. of water. We still ate a ton of water. I can't even imagine what it would have been like without them.

This was the first time we lost rudder control, on both boats. We were out for less than two hours and when we got back to the beach our rudder lines were as slack as spaghetti.

Never saw the top batten all day, heavily reefed. My boat had five to six gallons of water in it and my wife's had maybe two quarts. This is typical for us. I'm thinking this is due to variations in manufacturing affecting the fit of the forward hatch. Both of our bows spent a lot of time under the chop. I hope Hobie is spending some time and money to address this issue. I could go on but that is another thread.

There was a Hobie Get-a-Way there as well. They came down from Sacramento (about an hour away) to get some of our good wind. It was too good! Poor guy, spent most of the day on the beach.

It is a cheap waterproof Oregon Scientific. It comes with a pelthoria of mounting straps and clamps but without a view finder it is real hard to know just what you are focused on. Its buttons are very hard to push and its icons are impossible for my old eyes to see.

I plan to mount it on a piece of conduit and rig it so that I can get some action shots but am still working out the kinks. I have several other videos on that can be accessed from this link.
https://upload.video.google.com/Status?f=l

They were all made using a non-waterproof Kodak so it is hard to get too wild and crazy a shots. The Dolphin video that I uploaded first is messed up but they don't seem to let you delete them so there are 2 of pretty much the same stuff.

Yesterday I lost 1 side of the shield and I could really tell the difference. I used a claw hammer instead of rubber malet to clamp the clips and it seems to have driven the pins too far down cracking the clips. Once I get a design that works as near perfectly as I figure it can I will post a detailed how too.

5 to 6 gallons is way too much I go out for hours in real heavy stuff and seldom have more than a gallon. I do have my line enteries siliconed though.